Turmoil on the Romanian political stage

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis criticizes the ruling party PSD, of being more focused on solving its internal problems than taking measures for Romanians’ safety.

Tensions between the President and the PM
(photo: gov.ro/presidency.ro)

The political crisis in Bucharest continues and President Klaus Iohannis and PM Viorica Dancila, both presidential candidates, are harshly criticizing each other. Iohannis accuses the ruling Social Democratic Party of having done nothing to prevent situations such as the one in Caracal, where two teenage girls were kidnapped, raped and murdered by a 68-year old man. The tragedy has surfaced serious problems in the way the state institution, plagued by incompetence, corruption and indifference, work, Iohannis has said. The President believes the Social Democrat governing has failed because, except for a few specific measures, it has only rotated heads of institutions, without actually punishing them for their incompetence.

Klaus Iohannis :“At it has repeatedly shown us, PSD is expert in delaying things, hoping people will forget who the guilty ones are. PSD members have abandoned solutions to systemic problems when their leaders understood these solutions meant in fact giving up control over Justice and Police, because, beyond the decision to toughen or not penalties for offenses, we are talking about how the state institutions work.”

In her turn, PM Dancila has said the Government will notify the Constitutional Court over a legal conflict with the head of state. Dancila has accused the President of blocking Government’s activity by his unjustified refusal to endorse new ministers for the ministries of Energy, Environment and the Relation with Parliament. Dancila has also criticized Iohannis for mentioning, after so long, the tragedy in Caracal, and has said it is indecent to use it in order to prepare the ground for political movements or to block the Government.

Viorica Dancila: “It is not the state, whose head he says he is, that needs a reset, but it is Romania’s President who needs a reset. He speaks of power, but he forgets he has been in power for five years now. Let’s remember how in the first days after this tragedy Klaus Iohannis was very late at a meeting of the Supreme Defense Council and hesitated to dismiss the head of the Special Telecommunication Service, after which he reconsidered, late and uselessly, just as he came now to tell us a big nothing.”

According to the PM, it’s not just the President who wants to systematically block the Government, but the entire opposition, that plans to hold a no confident vote in Parliament, against the Dancila cabinet. The Liberals have announced they are negotiating with other parliamentary parties to make sure they do not miss the opportunity to oust the Social Democrats, especially after the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the Social Democrats’ junior partners, left the Governing coalition.